On Sun, 21 Sep 2008, "Anton Belyaev" <anton(dot)belyaev(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> SELECT * FROM towns where alt1 <= alt <= alt2 AND long1 <= long <=
> long2 ORDER BY population LIMIT 10;
You're absolutely on the wrong path. Don't try to implement a logic,
that has been implemented by PostgreSQL in the most possibly efficient
way in its bounds. See geographic data types[1] (e.g. box) and
geographic functions[2] (e.g. @> a.k.a contains).
Regards.
[1] http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/datatype-geometric.html
[2] http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/functions-geometry.html